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Dawne
In the short story Savages and Wings, Dawne was an ex-R.F.C. pilot who kidnapped Biggles and hijacked his aircraft while he and Algy were at Port Moresby in New Guinea. Some years before the events in the story, Dawne had been a pilot at Calshot on a short-service commission when he had been caught cashing dud cheques. Biggles was the president of the Court Martial which found him guilty and had him discharged from service. Dawne would explain to Biggles later that he did not cash the cheques for himself, but for a girl, probably named Pauline. After leaving the service, Dawne drifted for a while and then got a job as the under-manager of a gold mining operation in New Guinea, working for the British Alluvial Company under a manager named Angus McReady. At first the gold was coming in off the alluvial silt brought up by the dredger but after a while there was no more gold. The operation folded up and Dawne lost his job. A few years later, Dawne met one of the New Guineans who worked on the dredger now a farm labourer in Darwin. The man told Dawne how he used to scrub the baffle plates of the dredger every morning and night. Dawne finally understood what had happened. The baffle plates of the dredger had been treated with a mercury compound to make gold stick to it. The man did not know any better and had been trying to keep the equipment clean. He did not understand that everytime he scrubbed the plates, he had been removing the gold from the plates. Dawne realised that the gold must still be in the alluvial silt at the dredging site but he now had a problem of how to get to it. He worked his passage to Port Moresby but there he got stuck. An overland expedition would take months and would involve too many people. Not knowing what else to do, it must have struck him as a bit of luck that Biggles and Algy should turn up after their adventures looking for Bob's Box. Dawne considered making an offer to Biggles to get the gold together but knew he wouldn't accept. So he hung around the hotel to see if Biggles would recognise him. When it looked like Biggles had forgotten about him, he pretended to be an engineer interested in aeroplanes and tricked Biggles into giving him a tour of the Vickers Vandal. Partly through the tour, Biggles suddenly remembered him, but it was too late. They were alone and on board the Vandal. Dawne struck him on the head, knocked him out and took off in the aircraft, headed for the river where the gold was. Upon landing, Dawne left Biggles tied up while he fetched the gold. It would have been a smooth and easy operation to retrieve a couple of bags of the silt but now fate intervened. While Dawne was away fetching the gold, some Papuan natives attacked the aircraft with spears and arrows. A spear blade penetrated the cabin walls. Biggles cut his bonds with the spear blade and moved to the cockpit to start the engine. He saw Dawne hurrying towards the aircraft, under attack by the Papuans and yelled to him to watch out. Dawne almost made it to the cabin door before he was struck by a spear between the shoulder blades. Biggles dragged him into the cabin and made a hasty take-off under a hail of spears and arrows. His troubles were not over--one of the arrows had holed the main tank. Out of fuel, Biggles put the Vandal down on a river and then made his way back to the cabin to attend to the injured Dawne. Knowing that he was dying, Dawne made a full confession and told Biggles about the gold. He assured Biggles that he was safe as the aircraft was on the river and would drift to the coast where the natives were friendly and he could be rescued. Indeed, Algy and the District Magistrate were approaching in a motor boat, having heard about the two men from the bush telegraph of the native tribes. Dawne died before the boat arrived. From his delirious lips, the last word was probably the name of the person who had been the cause of all his troubles: "Pauline." Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Interwar era characters